We usually find these a little later in the summer....not usually at the same time we are finding red chanterelles (c. cinnabarinus) I think we have both c. cibarius and c. lateritius on different areas of our land. I am trying another spore print on the ones we found this morning. The smooth chanterelle is supposed to have a pinkish spore print the other pale yellow.
They are delicious no matter which......here are pictures of this mornings find..............

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi

wow those are very nice! here we get them about the first week of june every year depending on when the last big rain of may comes in. this year like clockwork they were out by june first! i picked a grocery bag full from my friends yard, after they had picked it over twice already, it was a real good first flush this year. have you found any black trumpets? we went for a hike and found a good bit of them up in hilly regions of the county

Hi, John....I don't know 'black trumpet' mushrooms and couldn't find it in my books....do you have a picture or any other information to ID? We may not have them here. I'm going to see if there are more chanterelles today after more rain. We haven't had a wet June in a while, it is great.

EDIT...is 'black trumpet' the same as 'horn of plenty' craterellus cornucopioides? we did see a few of those and didn't try them...are they good?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi

I wish I was a more creative cook....part of this mornings pick of chanterelles sauted with onions...over rice...lambsquarters...goat cheese....same old thing

any suggestions for something different and wonderful to do with the rest of the mushrooms? Does anyone else get bored with the cooking part by the time they have grown or gathered the food??? I sometimes fantasize about providing all of these super ingredients to someone and in return they serve us with gourmet meals for two at our table.......

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi

Wow, those chanterelles sure look good! I just spotted the first Yellow Chanterelles (Cantharellus formosus is the main West Coast species) of the year along the road down to the barn- that spot is always extra early, probably because I water it with a sprinkler attached to a hose when it's dry! But usually, in western Oregon the first chanterelles appear round the end of July or in August under Sitka Spruce along the ocean.
To answer your question, I think Black Trumpets are the same as the Horn of Plenty (Craterellus cornicopioides)- they look a lot like the Smooth Chanterelle, but they are a dark grayish-black color. They are difficult to see, but once you start seeing them, you'll usually spot a bunch more that you missed earlier. They don't appear in Oregon till December, probably much earlier in your neck of the woods. They are really delicious and taste superb when combined with eggs and cheese in omelets!
Here's one of our favorite Yellow Chanterelle recipes: saute the sliced chanterelles in butter or oil, after 10 minutes add garlic, onions, salt, tamari/soy sauce, a dash of sherry and after 5 more minutes add curry powder and then sour cream, turn it down and put a lid on the pan. After 5 minutes, serve over noodles or rice. Bon appetit! Chanterelles are also superb in cream of mushroom soup as well.

Here's the scoop on Black Trumpets from Michael Kuo, the mushroom expert:

Thank you, MK for all of the information....we did see some 'horn of plenty' and left them, there were only a few and like you say, hard to spot....next time though might gather some just to taste them....chanterelles are so much easier for my vision, we have an area of woods that doesn't have much undergrowth so we can spot patches of them from quite a distance. They have only been this prolific one other time in the past fifteen years.
Your recipe sounds great....it might just be lunch....and the creme of mushroom soup reminds me we need to check on the shiitakes...creme of shiitake soup maybe with some chanterelles.....

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi

M.K. Dorje Jr.

Posts: 127

Location: Orgyen, zone 8

12

posted 4 years ago

1

I forgot to mention that Black Trumpets are one of the best mushrooms to dry for storage. The flavor is concentrated by drying. I dry my extra Black Trumpets whole in a commercial food dryer (it's too wet outside here in December for outdoor drying in the sun), then I put them in mason jars in the freezer where they can be stored for years.

another basket full this morning...this is probably kind of boring to watch...although for us finding them it is pretty exciting...we are like a couple of kids on an easter egg hunt.....this year they are just amazing in an area of trees with no poison ivy....we are careful to leave plenty and always miss some anyway that become too full blown and buggy... those are our future harvest stored out there in the woodland

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"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi

Jay Grace wrote:The chanterelles are wide open here in Alabama.
Ive easily gathered 35lbs of these fantastic fungi over the past week. Hopefully will gather enough this year to make it until next years harvest.

great harvest! how are you preserving them? I dry shiitakes and morels...haven't tried drying any of these yet...although I froze a few sauted ones in our tiny refrigerator freezer to spread them out a bit.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi

Jay Grace

Posts: 277

Location: Nauvoo, AL

13

posted 4 years ago

I'm pretty lazy and just boil them in a huge pot with butter, then freeze them in gallon bags. That way I don't have to worry about rehydrating them or cooking them to much.
Just heat and serve.
I have had some dehydrated ones and it does bring out the flavor more.

Bad thing about being in the south with chanterelles is there are little grubs in every last mushroom. On the good side it's chanterelle fed, extra protein

Well i broke down and just bummed a computer and these are some of the pics. The top pic on the blue rag is the last few from the end of the season before everything burnt up in the heat.
The second pic is 35lbs of chanterelles that i gathered from the woods behind the house. (and yes its 35lbs i step on the scales with and without the bags)
About 2hrs gathering, then, another few hours processing and getting a decent amount of the grubs out of the stems. Making a halfassed effort to remove the grubs is what makes it bothersome to me. If it were me just eating the shrooms I'd leave them in. They dissappear when you cook the mushrooms anyway. Down here in Alabama maybe one out of 50 wont have at least one grub worm in the base.
Hopefully once it cools off towards october and we get a decent amount of rain we will have a second bloom this year. But that is hit or miss.

I rip mine into 1/8 - 1/4" thick strips and toss them in a coolish dryer and try to remember to shake them every 4-12 hours. Depending on the moisture content they can be "hard/crisp dry" in 12 -48 hours then I dry can them either in strips or after dicing. After dicing I might have small pieces or I might have just a lot of mushrooms and I run them through a clean coffee grinder for a powder when is easy to add later in a recipe if you decide it needs a punch. Rehydration of chanterelles can take longer than I want (or expect) sometimes.

Dave, somewhere I heard them described as 'folds' and this image helps me visualize the underside. the folds are also forked. Smooth chanterelles generally have barely visible folds or a totally smooth underside. Here there is a false chanterelle also that has sharper folds almost gill like and I think they dont' run down the stem....that one is confusing to me and when we first started collecting them I used to be so certain in the woods and then carefully go over the whole basket again at the house just to be sure....a look alike but not a deadly one:)

I think you can see the folds in both mine and Jays pictures in this thread.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi

Cj Verde wrote:David, did you take a spore print? That's the definitive way to ID mushrooms.

My husband is the main mushroom hunter in the family, but I know there is one to watch out for when looking for chanterelles - jack-o'-lantern mushrooms.
Omphalotus_olearius

They do glow in the dark so that's an easy tip off.

Jack o lanterns...........for us we find chanterelles just in the late spring and summer growing single and in small groups, on bare ground...and see this look alike in the fall growning on dead logs and stumps in large clumps, different season, different ways they grow....I've never seen them side by side though to compare.
I agree with CJ...do a spore print to be sure and be certain you are in the right season for them and the right kind of habitat.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi

It took us a long time to be confident about an ID for chanterelles. or any mushroom, for that matter Just any one of the identifying factors is not enough I think.....the spore print for a jack o lantern is white to yellow and so is one of the chanterelles,I believe, but combined with habitat and season and the assurance from several mushroom guides, a local fungi person, etc....you might get a good ID...don't be in a rush......

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi